Jury Members Chasing Bread

More than two months have passed since Michael Jackson’s acquittal verdict was announced on all ten counts. But the mass media still hasn’t let go. The latest claim by two former jury members is fresh food for the media, and according to Roger Friedman, it won’t sell among the public because two months is a long time to express regret over a verdict that has been issued.

Roger Friedman is a well-known figure among fans of the King of Pop. On August 5, in his column in an article titled “Jury Members Chasing Bread” about the same topic, he wrote:

It has been reported that two jury members intend to sell their books. This isn’t really important news. One of them, Eleanor—79-year-old grandmother—became famous for her line “Ma’am, don’t break it for me,” which she said in the press conference after the jury’s verdict, about the plaintiff’s mother. According to her, since the middle of the trial she had been writing a book about the process of handling the case, and her grandson was trying to sign a contract to publish it.

Immediately after the court’s verdict was announced, the jury members flew to New York on a private jet arranged by Disney to take part in the “Good Morning America” show and have a good time. The night before, they had also appeared on the live “Larry King” show broadcast on CNN. Were all these programs arranged before the verdict was announced? All I can tell you is that the atmosphere in the courthouse’s outdoor grounds after the verdict was announced was wild. NBC questioned each jury member one by one.

At the press conference, only one jury member seemed slightly upset about the acquittal verdict. Ray Hultman was the person who from the beginning thought Michael might be guilty, but there weren’t enough reasons to prove it.

After all these television programs ended, when the jury members returned home, they suddenly started thinking about writing a book, but none of them could, on their own, sign a contract to publish their book.

Rodrigeuz—one of the jury members—called me along with his wife to see if I could help them write the book. But they didn’t know what they wanted. They only knew they wanted money and wanted to make sure it was worth it.

Rodriguez wasn’t as “money-hungry” as the other jury members. Elsewhere, six jury members had joined forces to write a book together. Then a five-person proposal was brought up. The 79-year-old grandmother and Ray Hultman also joined this group.

Rodriguez’s group consisted of two women who spoke calmly and rationally in the press conference after the trial. They didn’t have enough evidence to convict Michael. One of them said, in a complaining tone: “So where were the documents?” They had lost hope in this case.

For some jury members in the Jackson case, all of this was about becoming famous. For others, it had become more serious. One member who was sitting in a wheelchair said in the press conference that he was happy to have found nineteen new friends.

Santa Maria is a small city with no tourist attractions and no public transportation system. The Michael Jackson trial has boosted the lives of some jury members. It’s completely clear that they didn’t want to give up this opportunity.

Now I hear stories like you do: two jury members claim in a book that they believed Michael was guilty. It’s too late. This isn’t interesting for anyone. If you thought Michael Jackson harmed children, you could have convicted him. But you didn’t. I sat in the same courtroom for months as the jury members. The most they could convict Michael with was the accusation of feeding alcohol to children.

Almost all the statements of the prosecution’s witnesses had been discredited. The vast majority of witnesses lied, and certainly many gave false testimony. There were many behind-the-scenes things that the jury members didn’t know about. This was something they could see: without anyone’s knowledge, Jackson had suffered from an extreme case of starvation and severe weight loss.

But it’s too late to change the jury’s mind. They had plenty of days. They canceled one of their sessions to attend a high school graduation celebration. They asked Melville very few questions. Maybe fewer than any other jury that has been involved in a criminal case since the O.J. Simpson trial.

No one pressured them to announce their verdict quickly. They could have worked on the case for another week or two and reviewed all the evidence again. They didn’t do that. And no one is going to buy a book just to find out why. If you want to know what they were thinking, watch the recorded video tapes of their interviews after the verdict was announced. All the answers are there. And they were completely free to do so.

Source: Fox News